


wild horses couldn't drag me away

by momothesweet



Series: A Hold On Me [4]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fights, Makeup Sex, Post-Fall of Overwatch, Reader-Insert, but it's not explicit sorry guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 02:32:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14392386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/momothesweet/pseuds/momothesweet
Summary: Jesse comes home late again. You confront him.





	wild horses couldn't drag me away

**Author's Note:**

> More Jesse content for you all bc I have no self-control  
> A little less of the sexy stuff in favor of something else in this fic so I hope you all enjoy anyway
> 
> Thank you as always to [Kelly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelbivdevoe) for yelling with me about this fool
> 
> song title comes from the Rolling Stones song "Wild Horses" and is also implicitly referenced in [_this is the sound of my soul_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13669488)

The light in the bedroom is dim when you lie in bed, scrolling through current events on your tablet and sipping a glass of wine. The fall of Overwatch didn’t exactly equate to a spike in crime. Now that you think about it, you’re not sure if the entire group as a whole made a significant impact. No matter how many lives you saved, no matter how many times you treated soldiers and civilians, more adversaries kept coming. Perhaps that was why people were so against Overwatch in the first place.

Despite all that, you have no regrets.

You are, however, suppressing your fury when you know that it’s almost one in the morning and Jesse isn’t home yet. It’s the third time this week and over the last few months, you’ve been noticing that pattern of coming home late.

Even out of everyone you’ve been able to contact since the blast in Switzerland, Jesse is still the one person who’s been taking this the hardest. Nobody’s been able to contact Morrison or Reyes. They both have been presumed dead. The two of you could barely make it to the service, on account of Jesse’s apprehension towards memorializing someone he still believed was alive. It’s been three years since then. Civilian life has been turbulent, but you’re still content with the life you’ve built with him. More than content, really.

Now he just needs to come the fuck home so you can talk to him about his late night outings. 

About a half hour passes before you hear the front door close. The two of you have been in some of those most dangerous, covert operations, but the man still can’t shut the door quietly. You finish your wine and hold the tablet to your chest, then slide out bed to head down the hall. Just when you’re about to reach the living room, you smell smoke and you waste no time nor silence groaning and turning on the lights.

“Thought you quit for good,” you say, disappointment clear in your voice.

“Thought I did too,” Jesse says indifferently before taking the cigar out of his mouth and taking a seat in his recliner. 

You miss the dark uniforms and the holsters, but he still manages to look good in worn-out jeans and a dark, rolled-up plaid shirt (you can still do away without the belt buckle, though). His job isn’t a glamorous one that requires a uniform, so you get to enjoy how casual he looks all the time. He’s gotten used to showing off his mechanical arm, too.

Jesse can look handsome all he wants at the moment, but you’re still mad. “You  _ do _ realize how late it is, right?”

He takes a drag of the cigar and doesn’t look at you. “Yup.”

You cling to your tablet and suck in a breath. “And that you’ve been pulling this shit for the last three months?”

“Yup.”

“ _ Jesse _ ,” you sneer as you approach the recliner, “do you think I’m an idiot?”

“Course not,” he says, finally looking up at you with tired eyes. Upon closer inspection, you spot it.

He doesn’t defend himself when you reach forward, taking off his hat to reveal the scratch on the side of his face, clearly done by a knife. Looking down, you see another peeking out of his shirt, and the blood that subtly stains it. “So it  _ was _ you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

You toss his hat onto the couch and hold out your tablet in front of him. There’s a breaking news article about a mystery man who got caught on camera stunning three would-be robbers in a convenience store not far from his workplace. You don’t play the video, but the clip of him, dressed in all black, taking out all three of the masked men with a single punch and then urging the store clerk to call the police is fresh in your head. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

He shrugs, leaning back and tapping his cigar over an empty coffee mug sitting on the side table adjacent to him. “What do  _ you  _ think?”

You’re about to say his name with that much more frustration, but hold back and set your tablet down on the same side table. “You’re acting like a fucking child right now. I thought we were done with all of this.”

Jesse says nothing.

“It’s been  _ years _ , Jesse. Overwatch is gone. No more of this ‘fighting crime and keeping the world safe’ narrative. Our lives are different now. Why can’t you accept that?”

“Because I feel useless!” he answers, rising up and tossing his cigar into the mug. “This is all so easy for you to say because you still get to do what you did in Overwatch.”

He’s right. Your skills in healing and treating patients have done well for the household—you easily found a job at the hospital. Jesse, however, wasn’t as lucky.

“Years of following some dickhead in a suit,” he continues bitterly. “Deliverin’ boxes day in and day out. Paperwork. That ain’t me. I made a living catchin’ bad guys and I’m not gonna give that up!”

Your hands ball into fists and it takes all the power in you to keep from shouting. “You lost an  _ arm _ doing that job. Some of our friends are dead because of it!”

His eyes narrow. “You think my arm is gonna stop me?”

“Shut your fucking mouth and think for a second! Do you know how worried I’ve been these last few months? Sneaking off and, what, fighting petty crime? What if there were more of them? If they caught you off-guard and shot you?”

“Do what I always do and—”

“Stop!” Your anger blends into all the fear and worries you’ve been bottling up throughout this time and you do your best to fight back tears. “What the hell am I gonna do if I see you show up on a gurney at work? If I have to be the one to help amputate another limb of yours? Or be the one who pronounces you dead? What’s going to happen if you’re gone?”

You point down the hallway as your tears flow freely now. “What’s going to happen to _ us _ if you’re gone?”

With your words and biting questions, he finally shuts up. Your breaths come heavy and you wipe away your tears. “Jesse, I  _ know _ you miss those days and I do too, but you can’t just run off and go save the world by yourself. We don’t have that kind of power anymore.”

He pauses, sighing and running his fingers through his hair. “So, what do I do? Keep working this god-awful job ‘til I retire? Let the world keep turning?”

You shrug. “I don’t know, but we can figure it out. You’ve always found solutions to stuff, right?”

“I mean...you were always the brains of the operation. You and the old man.”

“Heh. Come on. You had your ways of getting out of sticky situations. This one is just...a big one. Needs more time and thinking.”

Jesse takes another breath and rubs his eyes. You can see the exhaustion beyond those pretty brown gems, along with some of the pain that came presumably from his scuffle tonight. “I guess you’re right.”

“I’m supposed to be, right?” you say, attempting to joke. “Wifely instinct and all of that.”

He laughs softly, a nice change from his standoffish tone. You want to hear his laugh more. “Nah. You’re just that smart.”

You come forward and take his hands, calloused and roughened from all the work he’s been doing. You’re about ready to give him a kiss but he interrupts, “I’m sorry.”

Your heart sinks and you press your head against his chest after giving him a kiss. “I know, babe. I’m sorry we didn’t talk about this sooner. I didn’t know you hated your job that much.”

He lets go of your hands to wrap them around you, pulling you in closer and holding you tightly. “I’d rather run twenty miles for Reyes than put up with that asshole for another second.”

“Mm. At least your co-workers are nice?”

He snorts. “I hear the same dumb jokes from them every other day. Pretty sure one of the new guys hates omnics, too.”

“Yikes.”

Letting you go, he wipes the remnants of your tears from your cheeks. “I really am sorry. I didn’t think about any of that. About work, or you, or—”

“Daddy?”

The two of you freeze for a split second, then you let go so the little girl in sunflower pajamas at the foot of the hallway can get a clear view of her dad. She’s got your eyes and a brown mop of hair like his, and she’s the best thing to ever happen to the two of you.

Jesse squats down and opens up his arms to welcome your daughter to them, smacking a kiss on her cheek then picking her up. “Hey there, little lady. Did me and mommy wake you up?”

She nods and rubs the sleep from her eyes. “Daddy loud.”

“Aw, I’m sorry. Me and mommy had to, uh...talk. About stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Mhm. Mommy and daddy stuff. But I think we’re done now, right mommy?”

Jesse looks up at you and you smile warmly. “Yeah,” you answer, fixing her hair and undoing a tangle. “Come on, Anita. It’s time for you to get back to sleep.”

“‘Kay.”

Jesse carries Anita back to her room, which is decorated to the brim with zoo animals and princess paraphernalia. She’s got a giraffe wearing a tiara in her bed, and Jesse is sure to tuck that in with her when he puts her to bed. You kiss her goodnight and she kisses you back, then does the same for Jesse but then asks, “Story?”

He lights up and you put a hand on his shoulder. “You think you can handle one after tonight?”

Jesse holds your hand on him and he nods. “I always got time to tell a story. Anita, baby, did I tell you the one about how your mommy saved me from a dragon?”

She immediately takes interest and shakes her head. You hold in your laughter. The two of you take a seat on the edge of her bed and you lean on Jesse as he tells the very tall tale about how you held back a very drunk Genji trying to challenge him in a samurai sword fight outside a bar somewhere in Shanghai. You’re not sure where he got that creativity, but you figure it comes from how much he misses those days. It’s a good way to channel the hurt.

Anita points to the scratch on his face once he finishes his story. “Daddy hurt?”

He takes her hand and he shakes his head. “Nope. Doesn’t hurt at all. I’ll tell you that story tomorrow after you get some sleep.”

She smiles, clinging to her giraffe and slowly drifting off to sleep. You and Jesse stay in her bedroom a little bit longer before you whisper in his ear, “Let me take care of those cuts before we get to bed.”

He nods, and you both exit Anita’s room in silence while leaving her door just a crack open. Back in the master bedroom, you point to the edge of the bed so he can take a seat and you can grab your healing kit from the bathroom. It’s been a while since you’ve used this one; it’s one of your only memories from working for Overwatch. It also still does a damn good job at healing up silly wounds like the ones Jesse sustained tonight. When you return to the bedroom, he’s already got his shirt off, ready to go. Years of marriage and having a kid with him, and the man still looks as sexy as the day you met him.

“Cuff me, baby,” he muses as he holds out his wrists. 

You smirk and nudge his unharmed shoulder. “I’m still mad at you, y’know.”

“Yeah, yeah. No more vigilante stuff. Gotta live that boring civilian life.”

“You didn’t seem bored telling those stories to Anita,” you counter, attaching the bands to his wrists and tapping away at the screen that pops up upon opening the kit. “You’re not bored with our own daughter, are you?”

“Hell no,” he says, like you offended him somehow. “I can tell her about that time you knocked out a Talon trooper with your bare hands. Can probably bake some cookies for her while I do it, too.”

You snort. “Yeah? From scratch, though, not that pre-made stuff.”

“Use brown sugar and chill the dough, I know.”

“Serve with chocolate milk—”

“After she says ‘please,’” he finishes. “You know she’s gettin’ the hang of saying ‘thank you’ to everyone?”

“That’s good,” you say, disinfecting his scratches with a small towel while the kit does the work and assists in closing the cuts. “She’s also getting better at naming animals. Before she went to bed earlier, she finally pointed out the elephant correctly on TV.”

“Heh. Good for her. Wish I could have seen it.”

That’s when it hits you. You set down the towel and look into his eyes, taking his cheeks in your hands with a grin. “Babe, you can do that. That can be your new job!”

He furrows his brows. “What? Staying at home and watching Anita?”

It’s still not a glamorous job, but you know that won’t matter to him. You nod. “I know you won’t get paid and it’s not fighting bad guys and all that, but it’ll be good for you and her. She’ll be the luckiest girl in the world, spending all this time with her dad.”

There’s a long pause between you two. Confidence stirs in your belly and slaps away at the doubt. Years of knowing Jesse means knowing that he’ll absolutely make the right call with something,  _ someone _ as important as Anita. It takes the beep of the screen for him to finally smile back and give you a kiss. There he is.

“How long have we got before we gotta send her to preschool again?”

“A year,” you say as you remove the bands and start to clean up. “So you’ve got all that time to tell her about how amazing you were back in the day. You’re still amazing now.”

“Sheesh, woman. You’re just sayin’ that. I still feel like a useless man.”  
“Hey.” You wrap your arms around his neck and come in closer, pressing your forehead against his. The scratch on his face is gone. “You’re not useless. You never were.”

You kiss him once. “You’re a great husband,” another kiss, “a great father,” and one more before you whisper, “and a great hero.”

He holds you by the hips as you kiss, tender and soft with all the love you have for each other. A second passes and he pulls you down with him so he can lie in bed. You adjust accordingly, straddling his hips and running your fingers through his hair.

“Mm, sweet pea,” he groans as he rubs your hips, “remember when we talked about having another?”

You laugh and brush your nose against his. “Only the first ten times.”

“Can I convince you the eleventh time?”

It’s hard you to think clearly with his hands finding its way under your shirt, rubbing your back oh-so-slowly, just how you like it. The thoughts come in after a beat, right as you kiss his neck and tug his hair. “Maybe after I forgive you for sneaking off looking for trouble.”

“Deal.” A hand wanders down to slip down your pajamas and over your ass. The metal on your back is cooler than what you’re used to, but you’ve grown to enjoy the touch. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” You moan in his ear, then instinctively press your hips against his. “Still have some energy after fighting all those bad guys?”

“Just a little,” he says honestly, and you love him even more for it, “enough to get you off just once.”

“Once is all I need.”

“That’s how Anita came around if I remember correctly.”

“Oh my god.” You nearly collapse on top of him with your laughter, remembering that night vividly and making you want him that much more tonight. “Enough baby talk. You’re wearing too many clothes.”

“So are you. I wanna see my beautiful sweet pea.”

You smile, lifting yourself up so you can take off your shirt and look down at Jesse. In the late night hours and the bedroom light barely illuminating the room, it’s as if you’re falling in love with him all over again.

**Author's Note:**

> That mug that served as an ashtray most definitely said "world's greatest dad" on it
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you for reading! Comments, kudos, feedback and Dad!Jesse are greatly appreciated! <3
> 
>  
> 
> [My Tumblr](http://peachofwork.tumblr.com)


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